Saving Private Ryan (1998) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error From $2.99 (SD) on Amazon Video ON TV ON DISC ALL Following the Normandy Landings, a group of U.S. soldiers go behind enemy lines to retrieve a paratrooper whose brothers have been killed in action. Director: a list of 46 titles created 07 Jun 2012 a list of 38 titles created 09 Sep 2013 a list of 36 titles created 24 Dec 2013 a list of 29 titles created 18 Jul 2014 a list of 33 titles created 9 months ago Title: Saving Private Ryan (1998) 8.6/10 Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Won 5 Oscars. Another 74 wins & 74 nominations.

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Director: David Fincher Edit Storyline Opening with the Allied invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944, members of the 2nd Ranger Battalion under Cpt. Miller fight ashore to secure a beachhead. Amidst the fighting, two brothers are killed in action. Earlier in New Guinea, a third brother is KIA. Their mother, Mrs. Ryan, is to receive all three of the grave telegrams on the same day. The United States Army Chief of Staff, George C. Marshall, is given an opportunity to alleviate some of her grief when he learns of a fourth brother, Private James Ryan, and decides to send out 8 men (Cpt. Miller and select members from 2nd Rangers) to find him and bring him back home to his mother... Written by J.Zelman The mission is a man.

See more » Genres: Motion Picture Rating ( MPAA ) Rated R for intense prolonged realistically graphic sequences of war violence, and for language | See all certifications » Parents Guide: 24 July 1998 (USA) See more » Also Known As: Rescatando al soldado Ryan See more » Filming Locations: $30,576,104 (USA) (24 July 1998) Gross: Garth Brooks turned down the role of Private Jackson. See more » Goofs During the D-Day landing after Capt. Miller puts his helmet back on while in the water the leather chinstrap is almost off of the rim of the helmet. The scene breaks to a soldier asking Capt. Miller what to do next. When the view goes back to miller the leather chin strap is completely on the rim. See more » Quotes Ryan's son : [running to comfort his father] Dad? [flashback to D-Day] LCVP pilot: [shouting out the soldiers on the raft] CLEAR THE RAMP! THIRTY SECONDS! GOD BE WITH YA! There are no opening credits after the title is shown.

See more » Connections Courtesy of Mercury Records, France By Arrangement with PolyGram Film & TV Music (Mexico) – See all my reviews Steven Spielberg makes a unique motion picture in regards to the D-Day invasion of World War II just in the gritty reality of the detail For more than twenty minutes he revives for us the landing at Omaha beach No one was prepared for how horrific it really was No one understood what was going on: The terror, the chaos, the maelstrom of bullets, the near-deafening explosions You really got a sense of what these guys had to go through Within that perplexity, the focus settles on six soldiers under the command of Capt. Miller (Tom Hanks) after they've survived their terrible hours breaking through the first line of German defense, they're given a strange perilous mission, to find one man, Pvt.

Ryan (Matt Damon), a paratrooper who's somewhere behind German lines For them, it's an abstruse order, but they have to get it done Throughout the film, Spielberg's attention to detail is amazing For me, the most chilling scene in the movie is the death of an American officer It's one of the most intimate It's also a slightly confusing moment because two German characters resemble each other so greatly Toward the middle, a German soldier called "Steamboat Willie" is introduced By the end of the film, he has become the 'bad' German Later in the movie, another German is involved in the final fight He takes part in an exceedingly painful scene of hand-to-hand combat with the American soldier The two German soldiers have similar short haircuts and black uniforms Because they looked so much alike, many of us have believed that they're one character They're not, and the distinction of the two is very significant 60 of 96 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes Saving Private Ryan - Movies & TV on Google Play Saving Private Ryan Item added to wishlist. Item removed from wishlist. You will receive an email when your movie becomes available. You will not be charged until it is released.

( 6,642) Synopsis Based on a World War II drama. US soldiers try to save their comrade, paratrooper Private Ryan, who's stationed behind enemy lines. My review 1 60 Paul Tatara Spielberg accomplishes these goals with a technical virtuosity that no other director, arguably in the history of the cinema, can even approach. Jay Carr Saving Private Ryan is the war movie to end all war movies. It's the ultimate combat film, far outdistancing what until now had been the genre's World War II classics. Jay Boyar The cast functions as an effective and believable unit. And Hanks gives a strong, increasingly solemn performance as its mysterious leader. Joe Morgenstern Dramatic lapses notwithstanding, Saving Private Ryan goes beyond technical dazzlement to put a new, indelibly terrible face on war. Desmond Ryan Anyone who would like to know what superb filmmaking is all about need look no further than this overpowering movie. 20gram airsoft Violent I know its about war but, I was to squeamish to watch it! Some scenes werent even needed like the part were the poor man was crying out for his mama in his final moment I mean I nearly cried!

I stopped watching after a while cause I couldn't bear watching so many people die, I almost threw up. But over all it depicts war very well and makes you really appreciate the sacrifices made for us and it makes you really feel sorry for all the brave men and women who fight and die for us. Critic reviews Paul Tatara Spielberg accomplishes these goals with a technical virtuosity that no other director, arguably in the history of the cinema, can even approach. Full Review Jay Carr Saving Private Ryan is the war movie to end all war movies. It's the ultimate combat film, far outdistancing what until now had been the genre's World War II classics. Full Review Jay Boyar The cast functions as an effective and believable unit. And Hanks gives a strong, increasingly solemn performance as its mysterious leader. Full Review Joe Morgenstern Dramatic lapses notwithstanding, Saving Private Ryan goes beyond technical dazzlement to put a new, indelibly terrible face on war. Full Review Desmond Ryan Anyone who would like to know what superb filmmaking is all about need look no further than this overpowering movie.

User reviews 20gram airsoft January 20, 2015 Violent I know its about war but, I was to squeamish to watch it! Some scenes werent even needed like the part were the poor man was crying out for his mama in his final moment I mean I nearly cried! I stopped watching after a while cause I couldn't bear watching so many people die, I almost threw up. But over all it depicts war very well and makes you really appreciate the sacrifices made for us and it makes you really feel sorry for all the brave men and women who fight and die for us. Full Review Daniel Smith May 16, 2015 A very emotional and exceptional film Once again, Steven Spielburg did not dissapoint. This is an incredible WWII film that shows the price that is payed for freedom. As bloody and violent as this film is, that is the reality of any war. I strongly recommend this movie to anyone who has not yet seen it. And for those of you giving this movie 3 stars or less, shame on you for not realizing just how spectacular it really is. Also I read a few comments saying the movie Fury was MORE realistic than this.

Im calling bullsh*t on that every time. Full Review SteelersXCountry August 1, 2014 Greatest Movie EVER! It seems as if people have forgotten how unforgiving and cold-hearted the second World War was. A lot of movies show war as a love story, they are wrong. "Saving Private Ryan" depicts World War ll perfectly. This and "Lone Surviver" were the only movies ever that made me cry. The story of true brotherly love is heart warming, but also reminds you how gruesome the war was. In my mind, it is the greatest movie ever. Full Review Cliff Clerval December 17, 2014 The best war film I'd ever seen... "there's no such thing as an anti-war film", is a famous quote by French director Francois Truffaut, the problem with such is that they end up glorifying come back and not showing its true horror. There is another quote, I can't recall where I got it from which said that the only way to accurately show the terror combat would be to shoot the audience with live bullets... This film changed everything, war stopped being fun, its unflinching and the horror was so real, I was literally shell shocked...

Full Review David Smith January 18, 2014 One of the greatest ww2 movie ever This movie is truly amazing. Great cast, the great Tom Hanks and Tom Siezmore along with Vin Diesel, Matt Damon, Paul Giamantii, and other notable cast members. This is a movie that all from our younger generation that know less and less about what took place on D-Day, and ww2 as a whole. It really puts Normandy in perspective and helps us to see the horror of the war in a way that most never know. War is always bad, but there is a great difference in wars in modern times and what took place in Normandy. Full Review Nathan Wilkinson February 11, 2015 To the 1 who said violent This movie is a classic, and it was meant to be violent. War isn't suger coded to suck it up. This is one of my favorite movies while i was growing up. If your reading this buy it!! Full Review Tyler Goke December 8, 2015 If I could give it 6 stars I would. Best movie of all time. Very accurate war depiction and war-time tactics.

Even the calm moments were tense, which added even more. Ive watched it 22 times now and it every time it feels like the very first time i watch it. This is a Must-Watch, Must-Own movie. Plus, I didnt realize how many star actors/actresses played a part in this movie. They delivered the right amount of performance where it was needed, big or small Full Review Dragon Phoenix69 May 29, 2015 Defines the spirit of "The Greatest Generation" Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks together captured the heart,mind,soul and spirit of "The Greatest Generation" with "Saving Private Ryan". This is the movie that,60 years after WWII,reached out to world as a burning reminder of what this generation did and sacrificed.This movie should be shown to every high school class to show them the a time period which should always be remembered. Full Review mrstatic64 October 6, 2016 Emotional This movie struck me in a deep way that no other movie has, (or will ever do). Despite everything, I didn't despise Upham, he was a coward, but at the end, (when he makes them surrender), I felt happy for him.

I never smiled during this movie and almost cried. An amazing film by one of my favourite directors, Stevan Spielberg. Full Review josh casper June 17, 2015 One of the best movies of all time Just an awesome war movie. It'll make you laugh, cry and want to kill Nazis. Full Review jude wolfite December 23, 2016 Great movie!!! Loved it all the way!! This is a great movie, although be aware of the violence if watching with minors (because it's war, obviously). The scenes are incredible, I've even felt the shots and blown up parts and limbs missing. The ending made me cry, Twice! It's that good! I would put 10 out of 5 stars if I could. Full Review Satyan Patel August 6, 2016 Steven and I should have been in WW2 This movie is gritty, epic, and gut wrenching. Even if Steven and I were just a cook in WW2 we would have served our country. Wasn't able to, but this movie shows the reality of war.

Full Review Hemant T May 30, 2015 Sets the Bar so High for everyone else Arguably the best War Movie ever made, Spielberg delivers a true masterpiece of a motion picture. The opening D-Day sequence will make you shudder. The film will move you emotionally, deliver unprecedented War Action sequences, an ensemble cast will give powerful unforgettable performances. This is a must watch American Film. You will need a strong stomach to watch this film. Full Review Joe Grage September 1, 2013 Best of all time Want to know he horrors of D-Day? Watch the first 25 minutes and multiply it times five. johnathan lennox October 26, 2016 Best ww2 movie ever It shows the true horrors of war and it made me cry Full Review Jarrod Infante October 11, 2014 Not for Tom Hanks Really good, moving story with great acting. But even though Hanks does great in his acting ability, he has been miscast. No one would believe that an Army Ranger would make the statement that Tom Hanks was "built out of the body parts of dead GI's...".

Bruce Willis, Clint Eastwood (who would be to old to cast in this part, but still...), maybe Gerard Butler... But no one would say that about Tom Hanks. Full Review Justin Dodge April 5, 2016 Great movie This has always been my favorite war movie. The balance between emotion and battle is great and the repeat war genre cast coming together made this movie great. When uve got Matt Damon, Tom sizemore, and Barry pepper who have been in multiple war movies coming together with somone like Tom hanks you know it's gonna be a winner. Full Review Garret Stecklein January 3, 2017 Best movie I love watching movies about WWII and war but this movie tops all of them I can't stop watching I didn't think it was violent or gory. It was about war so that stuff is gonna be their. Loved it I recommend watching it. Don't recommend if you are sceumish and faint at the sight of blood. Full Review Victor Cortez April 27, 2013 Never thought so many awful things could happen in war. The best movie ever. And this is my favorite movie also.

Full Review Shane Fehr April 6, 2015 Showing the true color of war This movie shows what war is really like its not preatty war movie now a days shows that everyone survives no one dies will some do but this movie and fury are the ones that shows the true horrors of war Full Review Paul McMeans May 28, 2014 Weak plot Outstanding realism in the battle scenes, but the plot is simplistic. The film deserves its popularity. Full Review Alex Garcia March 25, 2015 One of The Greats Literally one of the best WWII movies ever. Starts off by showing one of the most brutal moments in human history, and keeps you going with a story with characters that you care for. lance rogers June 17, 2015 A great display That war was horrifying and this story shows that. All-star cast. Full Review Brycen Pedrick May 15, 2016 This is a great movie depicting world War II This movie shows what the landing in Normandy was like in WWII and what the war was like in general. It has an interesting and true story along with it. Full Review Brian A.

Clements June 5, 2014 All time favorite Tom Hanks leading a top billed cast, can't say enough good things about this movie. It's one of my favorites of all time Full Review Kenny McCormick March 25, 2014 Saving Private Ryan Man! This is a undescribable war film! The best world war 2 film today!!! Made in 1998 and is still better than the newer ones... And great rent price! I should get it and watch it with my friends!!! Even though ive already seen it, it is the best war movie! Better than full metal jacket... And this movie has more action than call of duty 1,2,3 and world at war! Way to go! Love it! Steven Stielberg is great! Full Review toad fan 1238 June 11, 2015 Best war movie ever!!! I didn't buy it but I watched on TV and its better than the titanic plz make more if u could Full Review Dave Fabris September 28, 2016 Kill Germans Shocking movie. Transports you to the battle field to fight fucking Nazi's and Germans.

Another great movie is Inglorious Bastards killing more nazi scum. zii jerrrrmans. Full Review Sudheer P July 12, 2016 If you are into World war 2 It's a great movie capturing one of the various vectors that might have occured in the traffic war. With a spectacular performance elevating a technically superb movie. Master peice. Full Review Kodi Krueger January 7, 2015 Great Movie, too bad I bought it and it won't download I bought this movie didn't rent it and it says error 408 every time I try to download it its on my nerves I was really looking forward to seeing this movie mobily Full Review jon Mitchell April 1, 2015 Good Fury has a much better plot, I'm not %100 convinced they would've went threw this much hell to save one guy, but otherwise a good job. Fury was much more realistic about what these men were like and what they felt mentally as they fought to stay alive.

Full Review Benjamin Uribe Sevilla November 23, 2013 Cried myself This movie is great it makes me realize what people will do for freedom would recomend to everyone only its a bit gory Full Review Luke bonczek June 25, 2016 Best movie ever The war scenes and overall filming in the movie always has me sucked in even though i have watched this movie countless times. Everytime i watch it, it's almost as if i'm watching it again for the first time. Full Review Freddy Fazbear January 18, 2017 Probably the best war movie of all time! Steven Spielberg captured the dirtyness and wrongness of the real World War II perfectly! Tom Hanks was really good as Captain Miller with Matt Damon also playing James Ryan really good! The effects are so realistic! Full Review Fabian Taveras February 7, 2016 Nothing will top this war movie Saving private Ryan is a legendary war movie. I don't think they'll make another one like this. Carlos Cervantes August 24, 2014 Great movie Just a reminder of what has been sacrificed to have what we have.

Full Review DeAndre Jordan January 1, 2016 I WILL NEVER WATCH IT AGAIN IT WAS GOOD TILL THE END WHEN YOU KILLED EVERYONE BESIDES THE GUY WHO SPEAKS GERMAN WHY Full Review Micah Ybarra March 29, 2014 Fantastic This was the first movie I've ever cried on and I did twice. This was beautiful and horrific and realistic to the point of terror. In my top 3 movies of all time Full Review Hunter Stories Co. December 26, 2014 AWESOME I love the movie. The adventure of tryin to find that kid to tell him he can go home from the war. But it sucks that he wanted to go home so that has gotta suck Todd Mickelson March 30, 2014 Excellent! Cry at the end every time. Saving Private Ryan Movie Review (1998) | Roger Ebert Tweet The soldiers assigned to find Pvt. Ryan and bring him home can do the math for themselves. The Army Chief of Staff has ordered them on the mission for propaganda purposes: Ryan's return will boost morale on the homefront, and put a human face on the carnage at Omaha Beach.

His mother, who has already lost three sons in the war, will not have to add another telegram to her collection. But the eight men on the mission also have parents--and besides, they've been trained to kill Germans, not to risk their lives for publicity stunts. "This Ryan better be worth it," one of the men grumbles. Advertisement In Hollywood mythology, great battles wheel and turn on the actions of individual heroes. In Steven Spielberg 's "Saving Private Ryan," thousands of terrified and seasick men, most of them new to combat, are thrown into the face of withering German fire. The landing on Omaha Beach was not about saving Pvt. Ryan. It was about saving your skin. The movie's opening sequence is as graphic as any war footage I've ever seen. In fierce dread and energy it's on a par with Oliver Stone's " Platoon ," and in scope surpasses it--because in the bloody early stages the landing forces and the enemy never meet eye to eye, but are simply faceless masses of men who have been ordered to shoot at one another until one side is destroyed. Spielberg's camera makes no sense of the action. That is the purpose of his style.

For the individual soldier on the beach, the landing was a chaos of noise, mud, blood, vomit and death. The scene is filled with countless unrelated pieces of time, as when a soldier has his arm blown off. He staggers, confused, standing exposed to further fire, not sure what to do next, and then he bends over and picks up his arm, as if he will need it later. Advertisement This landing sequence is necessary to establish the distance between those who give the order that Pvt. Ryan be saved, and those who are ordered to do the saving. For Capt. Miller ( Tom Hanks ) and his men, the landing at Omaha has been a crucible of fire. For Army Chief George C. Marshall ( Harve Presnell ) in his Washington office, war seems more remote and statesmanlike; he treasures a letter Abraham Lincoln wrote consoling Mrs. Bixby of Boston, about her sons who died in the Civil War.

His advisors question the wisdom and indeed the possibility of a mission to save Ryan, but he barks, "If the boy's alive we are gonna send somebody to find him--and we are gonna get him the hell out of there." That sets up the second act of the film, in which Miller and his men penetrate into French terrain still actively disputed by the Germans, while harboring mutinous thoughts about the wisdom of the mission. All of Miller's men have served with him before--except for Cpl. Upham ( Jeremy Davies ), the translator, who speaks excellent German and French but has never fired a rifle in anger and is terrified almost to the point of incontinence. I identified with Upham, and I suspect many honest viewers will agree with me: The war was fought by civilians just like him, whose lives had not prepared them for the reality of battle. The turning point in the film comes, I think, when the squadron happens upon a German machinegun nest protecting a radar installation. It would be possible to go around it and avoid a confrontation. Indeed, that would be following orders.

But they decide to attack the emplacement, and that is a form of protest: At risk to their lives, they are doing what they came to France to do, instead of what the top brass wants them to do. Everything points to the third act, when Private Ryan is found, and the soldiers decide what to do next. Spielberg and his screenwriter, Robert Rodat , have done a subtle and rather beautiful thing: They have made a philosophical film about war almost entirely in terms of action. "Saving Private Ryan" says things about war that are as complex and difficult as any essayist could possibly express, and does it with broad, strong images, with violence, with profanity, with action, with camaraderie. It is possible to express even the most thoughtful ideas in the simplest words and actions, and that's what Spielberg does. The film is doubly effective, because he communicates his ideas in feelings, not words. I was reminded of "All Quiet on the Western Front." Steven Spielberg is as technically proficient as any filmmaker alive, and because of his great success, he has access to every resource he requires.

Both of those facts are important to the impact of "Saving Private Ryan." He knows how to convey his feelings about men in combat, and he has the tools, the money and the collaborators to make it possible. Advertisement His cinematographer, Janusz Kaminski , who also shot " Schindler's List ," brings a newsreel feel to a lot of the footage, but that's relatively easy compared to his most important achievement, which is to make everything visually intelligible. After the deliberate chaos of the landing scenes, Kaminski handles the attack on the machinegun nest, and a prolonged sequence involving the defense of a bridge, in a way that keeps us oriented. It's not just men shooting at one another. We understand the plan of the action, the ebb and flow, the improvisation, the relative positions of the soldiers. Then there is the human element. Hanks is a good choice as Capt. Miller, an English teacher who has survived experiences so unspeakable that he wonders if his wife will even recognize him. His hands tremble, he is on the brink of breakdown, but he does his best because that is his duty.

All of the actors playing the men under him are effective, partly because Spielberg resists the temptation to make them zany "characters" in the tradition of World War II movies, and makes them deliberately ordinary. Matt Damon , as Pvt. Ryan, exudes a different energy, because he has not been through the landing at Omaha Beach; as a paratrooper, he landed inland, and although he has seen action he has not gazed into the inferno. They are all strong presences, but for me the key performance in the movie is by Jeremy Davies, as the frightened little interpreter. He is our entry into the reality because he sees it clearly as a vast system designed to humiliate and destroy him. And so it is. His survival depends on his doing the very best he can, yes, but even more on chance. Eventually he arrives at his personal turning point, and his action writes the closing words of Spielberg's unspoken philosophical argument. Advertisement "Saving Private Ryan" is a powerful experience. I'm sure a lot of people will weep during it. Spielberg knows how to make audiences weep better than any director since Chaplin in " City Lights ." But weeping is an incomplete response, letting the audience off the hook.

This film embodies ideas. After the immediate experience begins to fade, the implications remain and grow. Popular Blog Posts Audience Reviews for Saving Private Ryan ½ Technically exceptional and surprisingly unsentimental for Spielberg, this is a powerful and intense depiction of the brutality and horrors of war - a marvelous film that makes us deeply care about its characters and shows us that in war there is no honor, only death. Carlos Magalhães Super Reviewer When Steven Spielberg was finally handed a long overdue Oscar in 1993, he received it for tackling the harrowing genocides of World War II in "Schindler's List". So far, he's only received two Best Director Awards and the other was fittingly received when he tackled the battlefields of that very same war in "Saving Private Ryan". Two different film's but equally as powerful as the other. During WWII, Chief of staff General Marshall (Harve Presnell) is informed of the death of three brothers in different conflicts and that their mother will receive the telegrams at the same time. A fourth brother, Private James Ryan (Matt Damon) is believed to be still alive, somewhere in the French countryside, and the decision is taken to locate him.

Captain Miller (Tom Hanks), is given the rescue mission of leading his 2nd Ranger battalion through Nazi occupied territory to find Ryan and send him home. Spielberg is, quite simply, one of the finest filmmakers that has ever graced the craft. He is, and will continue to be, heralded throughout generations of audiences and that's with very good reason, as he's instilled a sense of awe and unadulterated entertainment for over 40 years now. Despite an impressive backlog of movies that consists of such classics like "Jaws", "Close Encounters...", "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "E.T", the opening 25 minutes of "Saving Private Ryan" - where he thrusts us into the 1944 D-Day landings of Omaha Beach - is arguably his most impressive and certainly his most visceral work. It's absolutely exhausting in it's construction and sense of realism and the realisation soon sets in, that this cinematic autuer is not about to pull any punches in portraying a time in history that's very close to his heart. The opening is so commanding that some have criticised the film for not living up this grand and devastating scale but Spielberg has many more up his sleeve.

He's just not able to deliver them too close together - otherwise, the film would be absolutely shattering and very difficult to get through. To bridge the gap between breathtaking battles scenes the film falls into a rather conventional storyline about men on a mission but it's only purpose is to keep the film flowing and allows Spielberg the ability to make the brutality of war more personal. Two scenes in particular, are as overwhelming as the opening to the film: the hand-to-hand combat between a German soldier and Private Mellish (played by Adam Goldberg) and the deeply emotional and ironic injuries of T-4 Medic Wade (played by Giovanni Ribisi). These moments in the film are the most difficult to watch but they only really work because we are allowed the time to bond with the characters beforehand and experience the combat with them. Each of them have a particular but very different appeal, making it harder to accept when some of them perish in savage and harrowing circumstances. The cast also deserve the utmost praise for making the roles their own; the always reliable Hanks is solid in the central role and there are exceptional performances from the first rate support, namely, Barry Pepper and the aforementioned Goldberg and Ribisi, who are all outstanding.

Janusz Kaminski's magnificent cinematography is also starkly delivered; his images are both beautifully and horrifically captured and Spielberg's decision to desaturate the colour and adopt some handheld approaches, add an authenticity that's rarely been captured in the genre and brings another dimension to some of the finest and most realistic battle scenes ever committed to the screen. There's not much in the way of criticism that I can throw at this near masterpiece, other than Robert Rodat's script; the conventional plot strays into cliche where the Germans are completely stereotypical and there is absolutely no sign of an Allied soldier anywhere. Rodat would have you believe that America fought the war singlehandedly, but despite these discrepancies, the film has so much power that these faults can be overlooked. One of the darkest chapters in our history is viscerally captured in a raw and uncompromising piece of work from a virtuoso director, tapping into the highest of his abilities. Some may prefer the more fantastical and escapist nature of Spielberg, but for me, this is the finest film he's made.

Mark Walker Mark Walker Movie Review - - FILM REVIEW; Panoramic and Personal Visions of War's Anguish - NYTimes.com FILM REVIEW; Panoramic and Personal Visions of War's Anguish By JANET MASLIN Published: July 24, 1998 When soldiers are killed in ''Saving Private Ryan,'' their comrades carefully preserve any messages they left behind. Removed from the corpses of the newly dead, sometimes copied over to hide bloodstains, these writings surely describe some of the fury of combat, the essence of spontaneous courage, the craving for solace, the bizarre routines of wartime existence, the deep loneliness of life on the brink. Steven Spielberg's soberly magnificent new war film, the second such pinnacle in a career of magical versatility, has been made in the same spirit of urgent communication. It is the ultimate devastating letter home. Since the end of World War II and the virtual death of the western, the combat film has disintegrated into a showcase for swagger, cynicism, obscenely overblown violence and hollow, self-serving victories. Now, with stunning efficacy, Mr. Spielberg turns back the clock.

He restores passion and meaning to the genre with such whirlwind force that he seems to reimagine it entirely, dazzling with the breadth and intensity of that imagination. No received notions, dramatic or ideological, intrude on this achievement. This film simply looks at war as if war had not been looked at before. Though the experience it recounts is grueling, the viscerally enthralling ''Saving Private Ryan'' is anything but. As he did in ''Schindler's List,'' Mr. Spielberg uses his preternatural storytelling gifts to personalize the unimaginable, to create instantly empathetic characters and to hold an audience spellbound from the moment the action starts. Though the film essentially begins and ends with staggering, phenomenally agile battle sequences and contains isolated violent tragedies in between, its vision of combat is never allowed to grow numbing. Like the soldiers, viewers are made furiously alive to each new crisis and never free to rest. The film's immense dignity is its signal characteristic, and some of it is achieved though deliberate elision. We don't know anything about these men as they prepare to land at Omaha Beach on D-Day, which might make them featureless in the hands of a less intuitive filmmaker.

Here, it means that any filter between audience and cataclysm has effectively been taken away. The one glimmer of auxiliary information is the image of an elderly visitor at a military cemetery, which opens and closes the film (though these brief sequences lack the film's otherwise shattering verisimilitude). Whoever the man is, he sees the gravestones and drifts into D-Day memories. On the evidence of what follows, he can hardly have gone to sleep since June 6, 1944, without reliving these horrors in his dreams. Though ''Saving Private Ryan'' is liable to be described as extremely violent for its battle re-enactments, that is not quite the case. The battle scenes avoid conventional suspense and sensationalism; they disturb not by being manipulative but by being hellishly frank. Imagine Hieronymus Bosch with a Steadicam (instead of the immensely talented Janusz Kaminski) and you have some idea of the tableaux to emerge here, as the film explodes into panoramic yet intimate visions of bloodshed. What's unusual about this, in both the D-Day sequence and the closing struggle, is its terrifying reportorial candor.

These scenes have a sensory fullness (the soundtrack is boomingly chaotic yet astonishingly detailed), a realistic yet breakneck pace, a ceaseless momentum and a vast visual scope. Artful, tumultuous warfare choreography heightens the intensity. So do editing decisions that balance the ordeal of the individual with the mass attack under way. So somehow we are everywhere: aboard landing craft in the throes of anticipatory jitters; underwater where bullets kill near-silently and men drown under the weight of heavy equipment; on the shore with the man who flies upward in an explosion and then comes down minus a leg; moving inland with the Red Cross and the priest and the sharpshooter; reaching a target with the savagely vengeful troops who firebomb a German bunker and let the men burn. Most of all, we are with Capt. John Miller (Tom Hanks) in heights of furious courage and then, suddenly, in an epiphany of shellshocked confusion. Never have Mr. Hanks's everyman qualities been more instantly effective than here. When the battle finally ends, there are other unfamiliar sights, like the body of a soldier named Ryan washed up on the beach amid fish.

(The film's bloody authenticity does not allow false majesty for the dead.) Next we are drawn into the incongruously small-scale drama of the Ryan family, with three sons killed and only one remaining, lost somewhere in Normandy. Miller and his unit, played with seamless ensemble spirit by actors whose pre-production boot-camp experience really shows here, are sent to find what the captain calls ''a needle in a stack of needles'' and bring him home alive. In another beautifully choreographed sequence, shot with obvious freshness and alacrity, the soldiers talk while marching though the French countryside. On the way, they establish strong individual identities and raise the film's underlying questions about the meaning of sacrifice. Mr. Spielberg and the screenwriter, Robert Rodat, have a way of taking these standard-issue characters and making them unaccountably compelling.

Some of that can also be ascribed to the fine, indie-bred cast that includes Edward Burns (whose acting prospects match his directing talents) as the wise guy from Brooklyn; Tom Sizemore as the rock-solid second in command; Giovanni Ribisi as the thoughtful medic; Barry Pepper as the devout Southern sharpshooter; Jeremy Davies as the timid, desperately inadequate intellectual; Vin Diesel as the tough Italian, and Adam Goldberg as the tough Jew. As the actors spar (coolly, with a merciful lack of glibness), the film creates a strong sense of just how different they are and just how strange it is for each man to find himself in this crucible. Yet ''Saving Private Ryan,'' unlike even the best films about the mind-bending disorientation of the Vietnam War, does not openly challenge the moral necessity of their being forced to fight. With a wonderfully all-embracing vision, it allows for patriotism, abject panic and everything in between. The soldiers' decisions are never made easily, and sometimes they are fatally wrong. In this uncertainty, too, ''Saving Private Ryan'' tells an unexpected truth. The film divides gracefully into a string of well-defined sequences that lead inexorably to Ryan.

Inevitably, audiences will know that he is played by Matt Damon and thus will be found alive. But the film still manages to create considerable suspense about when and how he will appear. When it finally comes, Mr. Damon's entrance is one more tribute to Mr. Spielberg's ingenious staging, catching the viewer utterly off-guard. There's the same effect to Ryan's impassioned reaction, in one of many scenes that prompt deep emotion, to the news that he can go home. Though ''Saving Private Ryan'' features Hollywood's most durable contemporary star in its leading role, there's nothing stellar about the way Mr. Hanks gives the film such substance and pride. As in ''Apollo 13,'' his is a modest, taciturn brand of heroism, and it takes on entirely new shadings here. In Miller, the film finds a plain yet gratifying complex focus, a decent, strong, fallible man who sustains his courage while privately confounded by the extent that war has now shaped him. ''Back home, I'd tell people what I do, they'd say, 'It figures,' '' he explains to his men after an especially troubling encounter.

''But over here, it's a big mystery, judging from the looks on your faces. I guess that means I've changed over here. I wonder sometimes if my wife is even going to recognize me, whenever it is I'm going to get back to her. And how I can possibly tell her about days like today.'' Among the many epiphanies in ''Saving Private Ryan'' are some especially unforgettable ones: the anguished ordeal of Mr. Davies's map maker and translator in a staircase in the midst of battle; the tranquil pause in a bombed-out French village, to the strains of Edith Piaf; the brisk way the soldiers sift through a pile of dog tags, momentarily forgetting that each one signifies a death. A man driving a tank looks up for a split second before a Molotov cocktail falls on him. Two of the film's principals huddle against sandbags at a critical juncture; and then, suddenly, only one is still breathing. The sparing use of John Williams's music sustains the tension in scenes, like these, that need no extra emphasis. But ''Saving Private Ryan'' does have a very few false notes.

Like the cemetery scenes, the capture of a German soldier takes a turn for the artificial, especially when the man expresses his desperation through broad clowning. But in context, such a jarring touch is actually a relief. It's a reminder that, after all, ''Saving Private Ryan'' is only a movie. Only the finest war movie of our time. ''Saving Private Ryan'' is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). Its graphic war scenes depict maimed bodies and shockingly sudden death. Young children aren't ready for it. Teen-agers who would think nothing of watching a grisly horror film will think more if they see this. SAVING PRIVATE RYAN Directed by Steven Spielberg; written by Robert Rodat; director of photography, Janusz Kaminski; edited by Michael Kahn; music by John Williams; production designer, Tom Sanders; produced by Mr. Spielberg, Ian Bruce, Mark Gordon and Gary Levinsohn; released by Dreamworks Pictures and Paramount Pictures. Running time: 170 minutes. This film is rated R.

WITH: Tom Hanks (Captain Miller), Tom Sizemore (Sergeant Horvath), Edward Burns (Private Reiben), Barry Pepper (Private Jackson), Adam Goldberg (Private Mellish), Vin Diesel (Private Caparzo), Giovanni Ribisi (T/4 Medic Wade), Jeremy Davies (Corporal Upham), Matt Damon (Private Ryan), Ted Danson (Captain Hamill), Paul Giamatti (Sergeant Hill), Dennis Farina (Lieutenant Colonel Anderson), Joerg Stadler (Steamboat Willie), Harve Presnell (General Marshall) and Harrison Young (Ryan as Old Man).

Question: Who played the part of Private Ryan in the 1998 film, "Saving Private Ryan"?
Answer: MATT DAMON